


Phone Swap

by PictoJournalist



Series: AdriNath August (my favorite month of the year) [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinath August, M/M, Miscommunication, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 23:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11701770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PictoJournalist/pseuds/PictoJournalist
Summary: For AdriNath August Day 3, Snapchat/Texting/Social MediaNathaniel loses his phone and finds a lost one. Adrien finds a lost phone and loses his. A series of texts—among missing details and misunderstandings—is all it takes to bring them together.





	Phone Swap

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to My Current Shipping Obsession
> 
> (If you want to blame anyone for it, that's gonna be my dear old friend CloudWeaver/FoxyThief here on AO3)
> 
> I don't actually have extremely strong feelings for this story compared to my others, but I still feel some pride for it nonetheless. I'm more than willing to talk AdriNath on my tumblr at thepictonianjournalist.tumblr.com. Enjoy!

_the next step, of course_  
_is to give him the ol razzle dazzle_  
_then_  
_serenade him_  
_with the entire bee movie script_  
_its online I trust you can get it memorized_  
_that big brain of yours can do it_  
_Finally_  
_(we are onto the final step)_  
_you must_  
_and I mean you MUST_  
_be the absolute smoothest dude in the world_  
_when you_  
_sneak into his bedroom in the middle of the night_  
_in your finest_  
_shrek costume_  
_and you touch him_  
_and say_  
_“this is my swamp”_

Nathaniel feared for his life.

This wasn’t even his phone, and the messages weren’t directed at him. He had merely found the phone from a distance as he was just about to leave school for the day after staying a little later to finish a poster project. The phone lay discarded on the front staircase, insistently pinging message after message. Surely, he figured, it had to be someone frantically trying to contact the owner of the phone, but the first glance at the questionable messages convinced him to just let it be and wait until he got home. He would have most definitely just brought it to the principal’s office if it wasn’t for the fact that the school was just about to close for the day.

It hadn’t stopped at all, even as he made his way into his room, and now that he was home and finally reading the messages, he was scared.

He wasn’t reading them just because he wanted to, no. Those were only the messages he saw pop up with each insistent notification. If that was only a small fragment of a larger conversation, he didn’t want to actively seek out what the rest of it was. Besides, he was pretty sure that’s an extreme invasion of privacy.

The texting came from someone with the name “Music Man” with a bunch of music notes following after it. The ominous name was the last of Nathaniel’s worries, but the way that Music Man was talking made him feel as if he was being directly threatened.

Finaly, he reached a moment of bravery where he decided to do what was best; get any clue of how to get the phone back to its owner. Even if that meant having to counter Music Man’s… advice? He thought out his message carefully, typing out the message with slow, focused precision.

Hi! :) I don’t mean to interrupt anything, but whoever you’re messaging lost their phone. You seem cl

Of course, that was when his thumb had to slip and accidentally press the “send” button. Inwardly panicking, he tried to finish the message, but Music Man was quicker to type.

_cl_  
_you’re not wrong_  
_yeah we’re super cl_  
_anyways hello mysterious person, thanks for stealing my friend’s phone_  
_while I was giving him the greatest advice of his life_

Was that meant to be sarcastic? He couldn’t be sure, so he was cautious in his response. He even switched to typing with one finger so as to lessen his chance of accidentally hitting the “send” button again.

Oh! Haha no, I wouldn’t steal someone’s phone like that.  
_it’s ok you heinous criminal, I won’t tell anyone_

Okay, so Music Man was messing with Nathaniel. That was helpful for interacting with him for the duration of their chat.

_where did that dingdong end up leaving his phone anyways_  
_I bet he did it on purpose_  
_he’s got this huuuuge crush on one of our classmates_  
_and my advice on how to approach them was probably Too True for him to deal with_  
It was left on the front stairs of Collège Françoise Dupont. Does he go to school here? Because I go to school here, too, and maybe I could just give it to him? I’m sure I’d know who he is.  
_oh my god, of course he did_  
_only adrien agreste would leave his super expensive phone on the stairs at school_

Of course it was. Of all people, it had to be Adrien Agreste. Not only did he grab a phone with a net value higher than Nathaniel himself, but he was willingly being told that Adrien had a crush on someone in their class. He couldn’t deny that he’d recently developed a crush on Adrien, but it hit incredibly hard. He thought back to a conversation on his own phone with a similar topic and a similar romantic interest, but all hope of that completely disappeared with this knew knowledge. He deflated, but he made sure not to express any disappointment in his next message.

Adrien Agreste? I’m in his class. I can just give that to him tomorrow, then. Thank you! :)  
_oh no problem_  
_this is nino btw_  
Hi Nino! This is Nathaniel.  
_I see_  
_so_  
_nathaniel_

A picture showed up next in the messages; it was an animated bee leaning against some blue tiled object and the other hand made a finger gun. He very well recognized the culprit as none other than Barry B. Benson, which proved that he once again had to fear for his life. His conclusion was confirmed by Nino’s last, haunting message:

_ya like jazz_

He didn’t have the heart to respond.

* * *

Somewhere between the school day ending and getting home from defeating an akuma, Adrien had managed to lose his phone and gain a different one. 

He knew the phone he found was left behind in Miss Bustier’s classroom, and it was on the floor just before the doorway. It must have fallen out of someone’s pocket on the way home, so he picked it up and was about to ask around among the students outside to see if the phone belonged to any of them. The issue came when a masked akuma victim came barrelling toward the school with a herd of hedgehogs, so he had to put the lost phone in his bag and rush back into the school to transform. That had to be when he lost his own phone. 

Still, he had to face one last question; what in the world was he supposed to do with this phone now? 

He had it sitting on beside his bed so he could answer any questions if anyone called for it while he read from his textbook, sitting cross-legged on the bed. Suddenly, a quick series of messages illuminated the screen, then another, and then another. He figured that it was someone texting about the location of the phone, so he opened the messages.

**Mylène: Nathaniel I hope you realize you look like the most lovesick puppy when you stare at him instead of focusing in class :P**  
**Rose: i know!!! i saw him doing it too!!! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ**  
**Rose: someday hes going to see you doing that & then youll have no choice but to get together!!!**  
**Mylène: All that advice we’ve been giving you about how to ask him out?**  
**Mylène: Just ignore that, keep being cute, you’ve got the face for it and he’ll have no choice but to fall in love with you**  
**Juleka: yeah, you should do that thing, the one where you**  
**Juleka: you just, you go in class and you kinda**  
**Juleka: you know?**  
**Rose: i know!!! (＾▽＾)**  
**Rose: julekas right!!! you can do it!!! we believe in you nath!!! (/^▽^)/**

 

Nathaniel’s phone? Well, that was new. And apparently... he had a crush on someone. A topic that hit close to his own heart, once he recalled the last few messages he’d sent to Nino after school ended—messages along the lines of _Help me I am experiencing romantic emotions for Nathaniel Kurtzberg at an alarming velocity and I need your reassurance and help_. He couldn’t let himself be overly disappointed, because of course Nathaniel had the right to have crushes on whoever he wanted.

**Rose: nath are you okay?? were we teasing you too much??? we can stop!! (｀･Δ･´)**

Oh right, he was reading them, which meant they were each getting notifications that he was seeing them but not responding. In a panic, he decided to reply.

**Nathaniel: Hi!! Sorry, this isn’t Nathaniel, this is Adrien! He left his phone behind in the classroom and I couldn’t find him in time, so I’m planning on giving it back to him tomorrow. Just wanted to let you know in case any of you were getting worried!**  
**Rose: oh good!! ヽ(　･∀･)ﾉ hi adrien!!!**  
**Mylène: You didn’t read anything huh**  
**Mylène: I’ll believe it when I see it but I trust you Adrien :)**  
**Nathaniel: I didn’t read anything past what the notifications were just telling me about, I promise. Anyways, I’m heading off. Have a good afternoon!**

He considered finishing his message with “good luck with Nathaniel’s crush,” but he quickly deleted it when he realized that might cross some boundaries. Plus, saying that meant acknowledging that his crush had eyes for someone else. It would be for the best for everyone to keep that at the side.

* * *

“Did Adrien give you your phone back?” Juleka asked as she walked past Nathaniel’s seat. 

Nathaniel had been staring at Adrien’s phone in his lap, mind still whirring on about the new information that came with Nino’s messages the night before, when Juleka asked the question.

He blinked, looking up. “Sorry, what?”

“Your phone,” Juleka repeated, “Adrien found your phone yesterday. He said he was going to give it to you today.” 

He actually wasn’t even aware that he’d lost his own phone. He had been so distracted by the fact that he had Adrien’s phone and that Adrien apparently had eyes for some other guy in the class. 

Nathaniel shook his head slowly. “I haven’t seen him yet, but I have to give him _his_ phone that I found outside yesterday once he gets here.” He emphasized his point by holding the phone up. 

Juleka tilted her head. 

Rose entered the classroom shortly after, where the first thing she saw was Nathaniel holding up a phone, so she gasped. “Aw, so Adrien gave you your phone back already and we didn’t even get to see it happen?” 

“This is Adrien’s phone,” Nathaniel repeated, and his tone was just slightly more clipped if only because he was so confused by the situation. “I found Adrien’s phone yesterday, and you’re saying he has mine?” 

“Yep!” Rose nodded and bounced on her toes. “He told us on the group chat last night.” 

“...He was on the group chat?” Nathaniel’s voice quieted and his face began to burn up. 

Again, Rose started to nod, but paused. “I mean, he was, but he didn’t see anything! You’re okay, Nath, he doesn’t know.” 

Nathaniel still looked away, setting the phone up on the table and resting his head on his arms that were crossed on top of the table. 

Juleka put a hand on the back of Nathaniel’s chair. “Did something happen?”

Nathaniel shrunk even more in his seat and briefly twisted his head in Juleka and Rose’s direction. “When I found his phone, Nino was telling him how to… ask out his crush.” 

Juleka’s eyes softened, and Rose made a sympathetic noise. 

Next into the classroom was Nino and Adrien, who had a phone in hand and was quick to make his way up to Nathaniel’s desk. He briefly tried to kindly smile at the two girls there, but they seemed resistant to even look his way. It confused him, but he had to shake it off for now. 

“You left your phone out on the stairs yesterday,” Nathaniel spoke before Adrien could even get the chance, holding Adrien’s phone out. His eye contact was limited, sometimes meeting Adrien’s eye before looking back down at his desk again before he could blush too hard.

There was an awkward silence as Adrien processed the sight in front of him. “Oh, that’s—that’s funny.” Nathaniel gave a confused look, and that’s when Adrien inwardly cursed himself and tried again. “Wait, no, not that you found my phone—I mean, yes that you found it. I just found yours lying in here yesterday, and I tried finding you to give it back, but I couldn’t, so....” He put the phone down on the desk before he could say anything else, then took his back from Nathaniel’s hand. 

Nathaniel picked up his phone and turned it on, seeing that there were some forty missed messages in the group chat before briefly looking up again. “I... barely even noticed it was gone. Thank you, Adrien.” 

“And thank you back. I really appreciate it,” Adrien smiled and lowered his head in a slight nod. However, he didn’t walk back to his seat for some reason. He just stood there, as if he expected the conversation to continue on somehow. 

Nathaniel must have felt the same, because he suddenly added something else. “A-also,” he said, “I hope things go well with your crush. Uh… I didn’t look through your phone or anything, but Nino was giving you some advice when I found it.” 

Adrien’s heart shattered. _He knows I have a crush on him_ , Adrien assumed from the way he’d said it. Was Nathaniel… mocking him? 

“Oh.” The syllable was short and dried out as it forced its way out of his throat. “Well… thanks.” Once the words had awkwardly tumbled past his lips, he swiftly turned back to his seat, keeping his head turned downard so no one could see his world was shattering around him. 

The sudden mood change also affected Nathaniel. He couldn’t find what could have possibly been so wrong about saying that. 

Unless… unless mentioning crushes was what set Adrien off. He could have lied and actually read through the group chat and saw his ramblings of how much he loved his smile, and how it felt like angels were singing when he was able to even slightly contribute in making Adrien laugh, and how his kindness radiated in just a way that he could never feel bad within a thirty-meter diameter of him. All such… embarrassing rambling. That could have easily scared Adrien off. 

Mylène had gathered with Juleka and Rose at this point, and by the way they were grouped up, they were filling Mylène in on everything she missed. He must have looked pretty miserable because the looks he got back were so painfully sympathetic that he had to turn away and stare at the wall to gather his thoughts and emotions.

* * *

_guess who tomato boy_

The notificaiton arrived on Nathaniel’s phone by an unknown number just a few hours after he’d gotten home from school. The surprise was almost welcome after a solid week of moping over Adrien’s sudden distant demeanor. He also quickly recognized the typing style, as he didn’t have many people that he’d texted across his life. He hadn’t actually talked to Nino much since the incident, mostly because he stuck close to Adrien so much, but the message was welcome.

Nino, how did you get my phone number?  
_pure motivation that’s how_  
_mylene actually gave it to me_  
Okay. What’s this about? Why did she give you my number?  
_adrien’s been pouty_  
_mylene says you’ve been pouty_  
_you got pouty at the same time_  
_and all of us are confused af_  
_so i’ve gotta make us all A Little Less Confused_  
_so_  
_spill_  
_why do you pout tomato child_

It was the last thing Nathaniel wanted to talk about today. On the other hand, a week of avoiding it was getting exhausting beyond words. If Nino was trying to take the role of mediator, he wasn’t going to complain. Sure, he was close with Adrien, but he could also trust Nino to understand his understanding of the issue.

Well, it’s my fault. I creeped Adrien out.  
_OKAY_  
_that boy cannot be in the same room as spiders_  
_or dogs_  
_or blood_  
_or worms_  
_but you are literally the last thing in that could creep him out_  
_say more words_  
_why do you think this you misguided mopey former phone criminal_  
I really did. I gave him back his phone and told him that I hope things go well with his crush. Then he got all quiet. That’s all that happened.  
_oh my god_  
_you_  
_are both so difficult to deal with_  
_nathaniel alexandre kurtzberg_  
That isn’t my middle name.  
_who do you THINK adrien might have a crush on_  
I don’t know? All I know is that you said it’s some guy in our class.

He stared at his last message, then frowned as a new thought came to mind and typed back with a new frantic pace.

Wait a second. Do you think he’s mad I know it's a guy? Maybe he didn't want to be outed to someone like me. I'm an idiot.   
_n a t h a n i e l a l e x a n d r e_  
_he’s out of the closet to like 99.99% of germs_  
_I mean people_  
_he likes a guy in our class_  
_he’s been talking about him to me nonstop_

All information Nathaniel knew by now. He sighed and rubbed a hand to his forehead, typing with one hand.

Okay.  
_.//breathes in_  
_mylene tells me_  
_you like a guy in our class_  
_you’ve been talking about him to her nonstop_  
I’m not sure why this matters. She didn’t tell you who it was, did she?  
_...nathaniel alexandre_  
_she did not_  
_but if you’re not going to tell me who it is_  
_i’m just gonna say_  
_adrien has a criegowqtoejs_  
Okay, very funny. Thanks, but I have homework to do.

Now thoroughly annoyed with the messages, he went to his settings to turn his text notifications off. However, new banners of text notifications started to show up shortly before he could.

_N O_  
_ADRIEN IS RIGHT HERE AND STOLE THE PHONE BEFORE I COULD FINISH_  
_ADRIEN HAS A CRUSH ON Y O U_

In Nathaniel’s lack of patience, he sloppily wrote one last message before shutting his phone down entirely, harshly setting it down by his bedside, and burying his face into his pillow while resisting the urge to cry.

Again, very funny, but thank you for mcoking my own crush on him. I know he ould never like me back, okay?

* * *

“I think I’m having an aneurysm,” Adrien admitted in an alarmingly high-pitched voice, grasping at the sides of his head while he lay on his side. 

“Uh, a good one or a bad one?” Nino asked, distracted. He was occupied with his phone, sending a few more spam messages of _this is 100% legit nath he’s right here and freaking out_ and trying to call his phone, only to get a busy signal every time. 

Mylne was also by Adrien’s side, trying to calm him down while simultaneously messaging the rest of the group chat about what was going on. She only looked up at Nino’s strange comment, paused, then asked, “Is there really such a thing as a _good_ aneurysm?” 

“As good of one as someone can have, I guess,” he breathed, a wavery chuckle laced through his words. “But that’s still—still _really_ bad. Nath—”

“Will be _fine_ after you tell him the truth,” Mylène hushed. 

“How am I supposed to do that? His phone is off. He's mad at me. I'm dying.”

Nino took his phone away from his ear. “Dude, if anything, he’s mad at me. I'm taking responsibility for this mess. My idea, my bad.” He paused. “But I'm not even sorry at all, this _had_ to happen.”

“Nino...” Mylène muttered to herself while shaking her head. Shortly after, a ping came from her phone, and she looked at it. She then brightened when she read it over. “Oh, Juleka just sent me Nathaniel’s address, and it’s only a twenty minute walk away! We can just go over there and straighten this whole thing out!”

“We _cannot_ do that.” Adrien shot straight up from his lying down position. “That’s the last thing he needs, a bunch of people he thinks are _making fun of him_ crowded at his doorstep.” 

Mylène looked up from her phone again. From what little Adrien could see, she had just pulled up the directions “Oh, not all of us! Just you is more than enough.”

“I _just_ had an existential aneurysm,” Adrien croaked, but Nino seemed to already be pulling him up from the floor. 

“Aneurysm or not,” Nino declared, enthusiastically dragging Adrien behind, “Nathaniel needs you to prove I wasn’t lying so you can just _get together already!_ ” 

If Adrien had an actual aneurysm on the way over there, it was definitely Nino’s fault.

* * *

The others had dispersed from around the Kurtzberg household, and then it was only Adrien left at the front door. He actually had no proof that they weren’t just lurking around the corner, waiting to make sure that he didn’t bail out last minute, so he had to just assume that they were. They seemed to know what was best, and after the emotional whirlwind he just went through, he had to blindly trust that they knew what they were doing. 

The problem was that he couldn’t get himself to knock on the door. 

He would raise his fist and get it within a centimeter of the door’s surface, but he would bail out immediately after. There was one time that he accidentally knocked, which he initially panicked over, but it was so quiet that no one inside had heard. 

_It’s really not that hard to knock on a door_ , Adrien had to remind himself. _Briefly connect your wrist to the door to make a brief noise_. 

He still couldn’t do it. Time passed, and he was still a statue at the front door. 

That is, until it opened by itself. 

He was face-to-face with Nathaniel himself, next thing he knew. Adrien would have probably panicked and just ran away if it wasn’t for the fact that Nathaniel didn’t even look that angry. Rather, he looked exhausted and confused, and his face was pinched with concentration rather than distress. 

Social logic told him that he should have started with some sort of planned greeting. It would have even made sense to start with an awkward “um, hi.” That wasn’t what he did. 

“Nothing Nino said was a lie, Nathaniel, and I’ve been ranting about how passionate and beautiful you are for weeks,” Adrien blurted out. 

His sudden outburst certainly shocked him, but it understandable shocked Nathaniel even more, proven by how he actually took a step back and his eyes were no longer squinted. 

“Whoa, um…” Nathaniel rubbed the back of his head, and a short burst of quiet laughter escaped him. He seemed geniunely amused by it, which was the only thing that saved Adrien from melting into a puddle on the ground out of embarrassment. “Nice to see you, too?” 

Adrien returned an awkward smile, and a short silence followed. Once it had gone on for just a couple beats too long, Adrien dropped the fake smile and exchanged it for something similar to the look Nathaniel had first given him. 

“Um, I’m sorry, but you’re not... mad at me? You kind of turned your phone off and wouldn’t turn it back on, so...” 

“I was mad at first, yeah.” Nathaniel sighed, then leaned his hand against the doorframe. “It took a few minutes of screaming into a pillow, but then I started thinking and I—I wasn’t mad at you, though, I… kind of didn’t even think you were there at all, and I thought everyone was playing a prank on me. I’m guessing I was wrong.”

“No, no, it wasn’t a prank at all. I thought you _knew_ I liked you all along because of when you were wishing me good luck on my crush, who was actually you, so you saying that to me sounded not right…” Adrien was aware of how his words were twisting in such a way that they were barely cohesive, so he took another deep breath. “So, I… had to make it as clear as possible. I had to say it right here, right now, in front of you, in real life, not through any friends or phones or anything. Nathaniel, I have an insanely big crush on you, and I regret not telling you earlier because you deserved to know right away. I would have loved to know you felt the same earlier, but...” 

For how composed Nathaniel had been before, he was suddenly going timid again, wringing his hands and blushing and offering his own embarrassed laughter. “Do you—do you want to come inside? We can talk more in there. Uh… just in case anyone else followed along. I’m suspicious of the bushes.”

Adrien looked behind him and toward the bushes. He saw the tiniest bit of blonde hair sticking out from the side of it. “I’d love that, sure.” 

Adrien and Nathaniel exchanged another pair of shy smiles as they closed the door behind them. Otherwise, a group of teenagers finally dispersed from around a local bush, and Nathaniel and Adrien’s phones blew up with ecstatic chat notifications.


End file.
